


more than friends, like best friends

by multicorn



Category: Glee
Genre: Episode Related, M/M, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 13:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3291803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multicorn/pseuds/multicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This fic takes place shortly after 6x04 and is AU from before 6x05.  Because I sketched it out between those two episodes and decided to finish and post it now :).  Just Kurt and Blaine talking a bit in followup to the auditorium scene, discussing things so far unsaid.  Includes neutral-to-positive mentions of Blaine/Karofsky and Kurt/Walter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	more than friends, like best friends

Kurt's at the Lima Bean, with Blaine, they're getting coffee together.  Like friends do, Blaine had said, and he'd agreed.  Invitationals are over.  The Warblers had won - Blaine looks smug, and that smile on him makes Kurt's heart skip a beat - and the New Directions had only placed third, but despite Rachel's fears the kids don't seem to have lost hope but are more determined than ever to improve.  And Kurt's buying for both of them, because losers, and it's not the same but it feels so much like every other time they've come here after Glee club things together.

"So, how'd your date go?" Blaine asks, when they're settled at the table.

"Oh my god," Kurt says.  He pitches his voice up, his grin wider, relishing the drama of telling it.  "Get this.  He was, like, fifty-something.  He used a fake picture on his profile."

"So I guess you won't be seeing him again?" Blaine smiles.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Kurt says.  It had been weird, but it wasn't bad.  "Actually - we already set up another date, for next weekend."

"Oh," Blaine says.  "That's surprising."

"Yeah," Kurt laughs.  "Satana called me a gerontophile just last week - it was pretty amazing, actually.  But let's both hope that she never finds out just how right she was."

Blaine hums, and nods, and takes a sip of his coffee.  He clearly doesn't want to talk about this.  Even though he's dating too, which means - surely he shouldn't care?  But Kurt still wants to talk to him.  "So," Kurt says.  "How about you and - " it's an effort it is to push the name out through his lips " - Dave?  Is everything going better there now that Sue's butted out?  Domestic bliss?"

"Actually," Blaine says, "I've been wondering… but I'm not sure if I should talk to you about this."

Kurt had been leaning forward in his seat, unconsciously, but he pulls back.  He's not exactly stung, but it's an unwelcome reminder of just how far they are from each other.  "Well, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"No," Blaine says, "I actually do.  It's just… kind of a conflict of interest.  But - " he visibly steels himself, and for a second Kurt doesn't know why - "my therapist says - "

"Oh my god!" Kurt says.  Interruptions are bad, he knows, he should work on that - but he can't always help himself.  "You're seeing a therapist?"

"Yeah, I am," Blaine says.

"That's amazing!" Kurt says.  He's bouncing, in his seat, inside his head but it's all coming out, and he knows it's ridiculous for the topic, but, Blaine.  And maybe they're always in sync after all.  "Me, too!  I mean, I was, back in New York, I haven't found one in Lima yet, I'm not sure if I'm going to try here, or if I'll just wait until I get back again.  But, yeah!"

"Wow," Blaine says.  "That's - wow.  What, um, if you don’t mind telling me, what were you going for?"

"Just - general stuff?" Kurt says.  He's not quite sure how to describe it, now it come to that, he's never been asked to yet.  "I was having trouble sleeping, after the breakup, and having trouble - feeling things?  But now…" he shrugs.  "He just helps me understand things better?"

"Oh," Blaine says.  "That's really good."  But he's gone tense again - Kurt can tell.  He can never tell what it is, but he can always tell when there's something wrong.

"Why," Kurt says, suddenly suspicious.  "What about you?  Did you…" he can't actually say it, but he does know, though he hasn't wanted to think about it, that Blaine had stopped going to their shared classes, that he'd been cut from school.  "Did something go wrong?  After the breakup?"

Blaine's voice does something funny, broken, that Kurt knows is meant to be a laugh.  They've known each other for so long.  "Right, cards on the table," he says, and Kurt makes an inquisitive noise.

"Apparently," Blaine says, "I have bipolar disorder."

"Are you okay?" Kurt asks.  He's startled.  Shocked, even.  But he doesn't know….

And Blaine makes another complicated face.  "I don't know how to answer that?  I guess - I am, right now.  I've been in therapy for a few months, and I just started taking these mood stabilizers, but we don't know if they're working yet - "

Kurt can feel his mouth’s dropped open; he has to remember how to work it.  "You’re on drugs?" he says.

"They're not exactly drugs," Blaine says, and then, "you know what?  Nevermind.  This is who I am, this is what I need to do, and if you're going to judge me for it, then I don't have to stand for that."

"What - I'm not - I didn't mean - " Kurt sputters.  "I'm not judging you!  I'm just - I don't even know."

Blaine sits there, waiting, eyes steady on him, and Kurt shifts uncomfortably in his chair.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Blaine eventually asks.

"I wouldn't even know where to start," Kurt says.  "So… not right now?  Not unless you want to tell me, because I will listen, of course.  Just - I guess - are you okay?"

Blaine smiles a little, bittersweet, at the question this time.  "I’m not not-okay right now?" he says.  "I haven’t been for a while.  But it is, um, a chronic thing.  I can feel okay for a long time but it still doesn’t go away."

"Okay," Kurt nods, accepting.  This is Blaine.  Whatever's going on with him, Kurt can't help but worry but he knows he has to trust him with it now.  "Um.  Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Sure," Blaine says.  "Go ahead."

"This is something that my therapist taught me," Kurt says, and his smile is self-concious this time.  At both of them, so close and yet so far.  "To slow down, for a minute, and ask.  Is there anything I can do?  To help?"

"Oh," Blaine says.  He seems so surprised, and Kurt wishes he wasn't, that he didn't have to be.  "Not really?  Maybe I will think of something.  Anyway - " he says, and looks down at the table.  "I should probably be getting home now.  It was nice talking to you, though."

Home to his new boyfriend, Kurt thinks, but he can't let it hurt too much.  They're still them, whatever the relationship between them or lack of it is.  Blaine might not love him anymore, but he still likes him, at least.  "Nice talking to you, too," he says.

They hug in parting, and Blaine in his arms feels just for a moment like home.

"So we'll see each other again soon?"

"Yeah," Blaine says, "definitely."

"Good," Kurt smiles.  And then Blaine turns away, walks away, and he's leaving, and Kurt says, "wait," and Blaine turns back to him with a question in his eyes.  "I just wanted to say - good luck," he says, and Blaine smiles back and waves in acknowledgment.

He still doesn't know what's going on.  But it's going to be fine.


End file.
